Noncontact IC tag labels are a medium that is also termed a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag or a noncontact data carrier. This type of medium has an IC chip retaining the information allowing the identification of a specific commodity/product, animal, or person, and is constructed to allow noncontact reading of the information by means of radio communications. These noncontact IC tag labels are used in such fields as transport, physical distribution, warehousing, factory process control, and cargo handling.
The confirmation of the advantages and applicability of the noncontact IC tags is progressing, but among the causes of the hindrance to more widespread use of these noncontact IC tags is the problem that the tags themselves are expensive. For use in larger quantities, therefore, it is important for these tags to be further reduced in cost. Cost reduction of the integrated circuits and base materials required, however, is currently at its limits and thus, remarkable lower pricing of the tags is not anticipated for the nonce. For example, the IC tags used for products are manufactured primarily by forming a resist pattern on an aluminum, copper, or any other metallic layer stacked upon a base material and having an antenna or electroconductive member for a noncontact IC tag label, and then etching the patterned region. These IC tags, however, are required to be constructed to have a simpler structure and at the same time, manufactured in a simpler manner.
Patent Document 1 proposes a method of forming directly an antenna using a punching edge. However, as the invention disclosed in Patent Document 1 is entitled “Electrically Conductive Member for Noncontact Data Carrier, and Method for Manufacturing the Member”, Patent Document 1 does not relate to manufacturing the noncontact IC tag label itself. In addition, although the noncontact data carrier itself is described in claims 3 and 4, a surface protection sheet with a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is not described and the construction of the noncontact data carrier differs from that of the noncontact IC tag described in the present application.
A method of manufacturing a resonance tag by punching is also described in Patent Document 2. The resonance tag construction described in Patent Document 2, however, differs from the IC tag construction described in the present application.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2005-346696
Patent Document 2: JP-A-H09-44762